Conestoga news

March 28, 2014 3:09 PM

Students earn top honours at Financial Planning competition

A team of Conestoga business students earned a top-two finish in competition against schools from across eastern Canada in the 2014 Case Challenge competition held by the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning at Humber College on March 22.

The annual competition provides students in financial planning programs with an opportunity to apply in-class learning as they network with sponsoring organizations hoping to access some of the best pre-graduates in the country.

According to faculty member and team coach Dave Kohler, 11 Conestoga students competed to fill four available team slots for what he called a ‘tough competition’. He said a lot of preparation goes into an event like this.

“We have been meeting weekly as a team for the last six weeks,” explained Kohler. “All of the preparation for this event was outside of class and students had to invest additional personal time to practice for the competition.”

At the competition, student teams were provided with a case study about a young couple who wanted to invest money for their future but were in a difficult financial situation. Teams were tasked with providing a solution to put the young couple in a stable financial situation.

Students were allowed two hours to read the case study, work out possible solutions and then prepare a PowerPoint presentation for a panel of four industry experts who acted as judges.

Kohler said the Conestoga team - Karen Bilton, Devin Van Nynatten and Anca Negruser from the Financial Planning Services program and Brian Collins from the Business Administration - Financial Planning program, did an outstanding job on the day of the competition.

“They performed very well in practice with the different practice cases we had given them,” said Kohler. “However, on the day of the competition, they delivered their best analysis and presentation ever.”

Conestoga offers a variety of financial planning and business programs, including diploma, degree and post-graduate options. Visit the School of Business website for more information.